


how long i've waited for your touch

by polyamory



Series: 30 days of tw femslash [8]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 30 Days of Femslash, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Childhood Friends, F/F, Mermaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 02:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6885607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polyamory/pseuds/polyamory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I saved you," Lydia agrees. "But now you have to make a choice. You can stay with me or you can drown."<br/>"Stay with you?" Erica asks, hope catching her in the belly like a fishing hook.<br/>"Be of the sea like me, come to life with me and my friends down at the bottom of the ocean."</p>
            </blockquote>





	how long i've waited for your touch

**Author's Note:**

> here's the second one for today! c:  
> warning that there is brief, non-graphic discussion of suicidal ideation as well as a failed suicide attempt by drowning (if you need a more detailed warning feel free to contact me)  
> otherwise enjoy the read (also maybe probably will add to this)

"Erica," a soft voice whispers in her ear. Erica jolts awake, panicked. Water splashes around her. "Shh," the voices soothes. Strong arms are wrapped around her waist, holding her up. When she looks around, the sight fills her with desolation.

Water, as far as she can see. Which is very far, the sea stretching out smoothly all around her.

Her and her savior.

She tries to twist and turn around, but her savior tightens their embrace.

"You're safe," the voice reassures, still no louder than a whisper. It's the intonation more than anything else that Erica recognizes. A rhythm like the gentle waves dancing across the beach.

"It's you," she gasps, and it's only then that she realizes how much her teeth are chattering. She's soaked to the bone, her hair plastered heavy and wet to her head. "Lydia. I thought I imagined you."

She didn't, not really. She knew because she'd tried to bring Lydia back but her imagination had never been able to live up to the real thing. Her hair the color of coral swirling in the water, her skin like the patterns the sun casts on the bottom of the ocean, her tail, green and shimmering like sea glass.

"You didn't," Lydia whispers the words into her skin, pressing a kiss against the cold skin of Erica's shoulder.

It overwhelms Erica, like the waves that pulled her from her canoe, and tears mix into the water on her face, run down into the ocean.

"Why did you leave me?"

"It wasn't safe anymore," Lydia murmurs, regret plaintive in her voice. "You were getting to an age where the world beats the fantasy out of you, like the wind beats the dirt out of sails."

"You left me," Erica cries, struggling against Lydia's grip, but Lydia's stronger, her arms hard and wiry.

"I didn't," Lydia says. "I was always there with you. You just didn't see me." Her voice is pleading.

"I missed you so much," Erica sobs, beating her fists against Lydia's forearms. She runs out of energy almost immediately, sagging forward in Lydia's embrace.

"I always looked out for you," Lydia whispers intently, hefting her higher.

Erica tips her head back onto Lydia's shoulder, desperate for a glance of her face. She'd thought she'd forgotten it, washed out by the current of time, like looking down at her through muddy waters, but she hasn't forgotten at all.

Lydia's face is just as lovely as she remembers it, her nose, her ears, her rose petal lips, her hazel eyes and her turquoise pupils that mark her as so very not human. Her gills, three long slits on the underside of her jaw and down her neck. 

When she was young, Erica had been fascinated by the fluttering edges of them, had spent hours ghosting her fingertips down the column of Lydia's neck as her gills opened and shut. It was one of those times, Erica sitting on a rock with her legs dangling in the water, that she'd leaned down, gripped Lydia's face in her hands and pulled her up to meet Erica's mouth halfway.

Lydia's hands had been on her knees, pushing herself up and into the kiss and she'd tasted like saltwater and the apples they'd eaten.

Erica kisses her now, easy as you please, just turns her head and with one finger on her chin, turns Lydia's face to meet her.

"You saved me," Erica whispers when they break apart. Her hands have found Lydia's where they're still wrapped around Erica's waist. She runs her fingers along the fine webbing in between Lydia's fingers.

"I saved you," Lydia agrees. "But now you have to make a choice. You can stay with me or you can drown."

"Stay with you?" Erica asks, hope catching her in the belly like a fishing hook.

"Be of the sea like me, come to life with me and my friends down at the bottom of the ocean."

"Yes," Erica says instantly. She doesn't have to think about it.

"You'll never be able to go back to land," Lydia says. "What I did, talking to you, it's forbidden. You could never go back."

Erica almost laughs then. "I have nothing to go back to. Why do you think I went out to meet that storm?"

"You wanted to die," Lydia realizes.

"And the sea was the only way I knew how. I'd already died there once when you left me. It seemed fitting." Her laugh is rough, creaking like the planks on an old ship.

"You can still do that," Lydia says, but she sounds careful.

"I want to be with you," Erica says, firm and resolute. She doesn't have a drop of doubt.

Quite the opposite, actually. It feels like something that should've happened years ago is finally coming around. Like her whole life has been a storm and now the clouds have finally passed and behind them is the sun.

Lydia.

"Then come," Lydia smiles and finally she lets Erica turn around. She's still holding her, and Erica is thankful for that because she doesn't think she has the strength to keep herself afloat.

And finally she gets a good look at Lydia.

Her hair is fanned out behind her in the water, still vibrant and untamed. She's wearing a headband of kelp, green and brown strands twisted together, adorned with yellow, star-shaped flowers.

Her chest is white as beach wood and bare just like Erica remembers it. Lydia had been fascinated and horrified when Erica had first shown her the bra she wore.

Her tail brushes against Erica's legs, moving to keep them both afloat.

"Does it hurt?" Erica asks.

"No," Lydia shakes her head, her smile is gentle. "It's just strange and unfamiliar at first, but that'll pass."

"Okay," Erica nods.

"You have to take off your clothes," Lydia says, hands already going to the zipper of Erica's sweatshirt. She's not wearing anything underneath and it only takes a moment before she's shimmied out of her sweatpants.

She's completely naked now, the water rushing in to caress her skin.

Lydia hugs her close. "Don't be afraid. I'll be with you all the way," she whispers into Erica's ear. Then she pulls her down.

Lydia takes them deeper and deeper, pressure building in Erica's ears, until Lydia kisses her. This kiss is different than before, deep, like a promise for something more.

When Lydia's lips leave hers, Erica opens her eyes, the saltwater stinging only for a moment. They're only holding hands now, arms outstretched, Lydia floating beneath her, but Erica's gaze is pulled even further down and what she sees there makes her last breath escape her lungs in a series of bubbles rising up towards the sun.

It's a city.

A city in the sea, built of stone and sunken ships, brimming with color and life.

Lydia follows her gaze and laughs. "This is your home now," she calls. "Come, Erica, let the sea take you."

Erica feels the current tug at her like an insistent child.

The change comes slowly, a tingling sensation spreading through her whole body. It starts at the top of her head and rains down upon her.

The pressure in her ears disappears and suddenly she can hear much more and much more clearly.

Her eyes stop burning. Her vision swims and then sharpens, like a microscope adjusting.

The tingling gets stronger and she can feel the skin on her neck splitting open, her gills forming just as her lungs begin to burn from lack of air. She doesn't need air anymore, Erica thinks, as her gills flare, filtering oxygen from the water.

She laughs, heady with the feeling of her transformation.

The tingling runs along her arms, membranes knitting her fingers together. She moves her free hand, delighting in the way the water catches at the new skin there.

She looks down at her legs as the tingling reaches it's peak and breaks, washing over her as scales form on her legs. She watches in awe as her thighs, calves, feet disappears and are replaced by a fishtail, covered in dark red scales.

"Like the red parrot leaf," Lydia smiles as Erica gives her tail an experimental flick. It moves smoothly, shimmering in the sunlight.

Lydia pulls her close again, roaming her hands all over Erica's new body. Her skin has the same pattern as Lydia's and finally they match.

Finally, they are equal.

Erica laughs, delighted, as she cups Lydia's face in her hands. She brings their mouths together in a wild kiss, both of them grinning into it, more teeth than anything else.

"Let's go home," Lydia whispers and Erica grips her hand tight as they start their journey into her new future.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at twlesbians


End file.
